Zera and Mengsk: Actually, both commanders still seem okay. This is nowhere near a Stukov level gutting, fortunately. Mengsk also got quite a few nice buffs and his fast expand style is still somewhat possible.
The cannon nerf was excessive. Either increasing the price or cooldown would have been more than sufficient. Both together…you’ve just removed an entire build for Zera. He will still be fine, just more railroaded.
Stetmann - some nice buffs. I don’t get the nerfs though. This commander isn’t OP by any metric.
Tychus - I don’t play Tychus so I have no idea how significant the nerfs are.
How about you? Any changes you wanted to see that didn’t go live? How do you feel about the changes?
Mengsk will be an asset for your ally first 10 minutes. He has no army and now also no cooldowns. At max one War Dogs. Zeratul’s cannons are wiped out completely. 60% pricier and on three times longer projection cooldown. Like really?
Vega was already good and is now… amazing. The Medivac nerf is quite hard but it’s much better designed now. Played a Vega/Nikara/Blaze/Nux game just now, so will try a no-healer game next to see how bad the Medivac nerf really is. Nikara seems pretty impressive now. Blaze felt better, but honestly the enemy was dying so fast to my Immortal/Reaver/Void Ray army that it was hard to notice Outlaw damage.
I don’t get why they didn’t just remove cannons all together. Obviously the ability is now utterly useless. You can’t cannon rush anymore, and now fast expanding seems to be out for Zeratul and Mengsk. Honestly I feel like I wasn’t money buying Mensk and Zeratul now. It seems like they wanted to remove commanders, but still keep your money.
I think the Tychus changes are mostly fair. I’m excited to try out the three outlaws I pretty much never ever touch. I disagree with the Kev nerf but it is not too major and I understand the reason behind it so whatever.
I don’t give two figs about Stetmann or Zeratul, but I am not exactly happy about the Mengsk changes. I think some of his Royal Guards could’ve used some more help.
Mengsk is still fine. He just can’t poop Zerg and nukes over every objective. His economy is excellent, his cooldowns are solid and his Thors/Missiles are substantially stronger.
Zera - yeah. That’s the sort of ‘to the ground!’ nerf that I don’t like seeing for Co-op. This isn’t a matter of making it slightly less strong. Cannons are now essentially going to be a trap for new players.
Tactical Missiles (both from Nuclear Annihilation and launched by Emperor’s Shadows) damage reduced from 150(+200 vs Structures) to 150(+100 vs Structures).
So what you’re saying is this “nuke” can no longer 1 shot spine crawlers? Tbh I don’t really think nukes needed a nerf at all, though I suppose 41 nukes is still enough to kill everything in the area.
Vega’s Dominate ability base duration increased from 150 seconds to 240 seconds.
Vega’s Type-88 Persuader Gear now increases Dominate’s duration by 200%, up from 100%.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 12 minute mind control? Excuse me what? Might be worth it to START with vega, with how god damn long that mind control lasts.
Zeratul’s Purity of Will trait will now grants 10 Shadow Cleave damage, 50 Shields, and 1 additional charge of Blink per Artifact found instead of 25 Shadow Cleave damage, 100 Shields, and 2 additional charges of Blink at three artifacts found.
The Xel’Naga Ambusher’s Vengeance of the Void is no longer capped on a cooldown.
The Xel’Naga Ambusher’s Vengeance of the Void now deals 50% of the Ambusher’s weapon damage, down from 200%.
4 blink charges for Zeratul? That’s pretty cool. Blink cooldown artifact finally affecting ambushers shots is great. (If I understand, that makes ambushers stronger than prepatch).
I actually completely missed the uber nerf to Ambushers too. So now cannons rushes red completely gone, early defense with the towers is gone, fast expansion is gone, and now Ambushers are gone. The removal of the cap doesn’t mean much when even at full charges, and 3 artifacts, you’re still getting drastically less damage while doing 3 times the micro.
So literally Zeratul now relies entirely on his partner for early game defense, and his only option for an army is mass immortals.
They seemed pretty busted prepatch, just no one used them. Go mass ambushers for a handful of games, I bet they’ll still be quite good, especially with blink cooldown artifact
Ambushers were very burstly but also really squishy and required some serious micro to use well. They are sufficiently expensive that losing them is a big deal.
I normally use mass Ambushers, a 75% reduction in damage output isn’t a buff. I get you can triple blink and with 3 times the micro and sacrificing utility for more damage, they’re only 25% less burst damage. And if you make legions even less useful by not taking that, and take the blink, that means you’ll still need 12 seconds on regenerate all 3 charges, 50% longer than the original 8s cooldown that also gave you extra blinks if needed. So if you completely sacrifice the legions, even if you use all 3 blinks, dealing 25% less damage for 3 times the micro, it’s still 50% longer recharge. Meaning they’re now half as effective as they were before. Again, that’s ONLY at 3 artifacts, and you’re sacrificing the legions. Which area already more expensive, when your economy is weaker because fast expanding is also gone. So even if you sacrifice everything for it, it’s still half as effecting.
These things auto blink when they lose their shields. That’s like, 90% of the micro done for you. Also, their blink laser has about a billion range.
Before, what you would do is walk up to the enemy base, blink back with everything, and the base gets dissolved.
Now, you walk up to the base, blink back 3-4 times in 1 second, and the base gets dissolved.
More micro yes? 9001 apm micro? Not really
Predictive Blink only works when you have charges. If you’re already having to use all of your blinks to deal half the damage you were before, you don’t have extra blinky available. That’s assuming you sacrifice everything else to do that, otherwise they’re only a quarter as powerful at 3 time the micro. And don’t forget, no static defense at home either.
The only silver lining is that while they are super expensive, you don’t have anything else to spend minerals on. Cannons are literally a waste being 75% less effective, and legions aren’t even worth selecting anymore. So losing your army all the time you’ll just keep spamming more. But the reality is you won’t be using them anymore either. The ONLY playstyle option is now massing immortals, and slower immortals since fast expanding is gone. And don’t forget, if your partner can’t protect you in the early game, you simply lose, because nerf to defensive towers as well!
Not especially well or reliably. The blink AI is…hinky, at best. It’s way too conservative, even at max charges. To really use Ambushers effectively, you have to do it manually. I’m not sure if it works out to a net buff, nerf or neither, but I don’t think the change was needed at all.
That said:
This is an exaggeration. I’d say about 80% as powerful for maybe 20% more micro. It’s not an especially necessary change, but it’s not a massive nerf.
Where are you getting those numbers? Because a 75% reduction in damage (200% to 50%) isn’t small. Add in having to blow 3 blinks now (up to 150% damage with 3 blinks, compared to 200% with 1) and the cooldown for 3 blinks being 24s compared to 8s. So with 3 times as many blinks all being blown on damage, to still be 75% as effective as they were before, at 3 times the recharge rate, puts you at 25% effectiveness. So in summary, that’s 150% damage every 24s, down from 200% every 8s. So yes, only a quarter as effective.
As far as the “only 20% more micro” 3 blinks compared to 1 isn’t 20%. I know math is hard, but going from 1 action to 3 actions isn’t 20% more actions.
The 80% comes from less overkill, especially vs zerg. I’d argue it’s closer to 90% if we’re talking about Zerg or bio.
He said micro, not actions.
Here’s what the thought process is:
Microing 1 group to blink 3 times has the same actions of microing 3 groups to each blink once.
Compared to blinking 1 group once, the latter has triple the micro while the former is pretty much the same.
3x micro would be attacking 3 bases as opposed to 1, which is MUCH more difficult than just attacking 1 base with 3 of the same action.
Yes, 3 clicks is in fact 3x as much as 1 click, but the brain power required is only a slight increase.